my teachers:

I was blessed to have my life touched very early by three amazing people. My life was forever changed by their minds and hearts, they are my important teachers. As all good teachers do, they informed the way I live. And although, I do not live or teach exactly as they do, much of what I teach today started with them.

I am a spiritual midwife, called by the God-Us to heal the Earth by healing birth. I first heard my call to assist women becoming mothers, to realize birth as a spiritual as well as a natural rite-of-passage, by birthing my own babies consciously. My initiation in giving natural birth was in January of 1970. It was the first time an obstetrician had seen a woman squat on the delivery table to give birth. Postpartum, when I wouldn't be separated from my newborn Loi Caitlin, (as they had no rooming-in arrangement) they put me back in the labor room with my baby. A laboring mother in the next bed was screaming, "Ah Dios, Dios!" How she suffered: My heart went out to her and I soothed her from my bed, my first experience as a spiritual midwife.

Jeannine Parvati Baker 1949-2005

About this time in my life, I began to teach childbirth education and prenatal yoga classes. My goal was to help more babies be born consciously -- thus, creating a sustainable future for my own child -- and future grandchildren. I had a significant dream during these years -- In my dream two brilliant white doves flew to me. I watched them land on my hands, and when they walked from my hands, now tingling with energy, up my arms, to my heart, I was filled with radiant light. I understood at that time that my hands and heart were agents of the healing light.

It was awhile later that I met this archetype in the Greek myth of the two midwives who flew to the birth of the twins Artemis and Apollo in the form of doves. By then I was well known as the "baby lady" of my community and preparing for my next challenge in reclaiming birth.

At this writing, mid-90's, there are over 600 students currently enrolled in Hygieia College, studying an essential midwifery which locates the power to give birth in the God-Us -- a divine life-force which brings our babies to the light. It is an international mystery school which, I am proud to say, graduates midwives who practice differently than I. Each midwife serves her own community, and is responsive to what is best-for-life in the moment. Rather than a method, or a training course, Hygieia College is a journey to the sources of healing and an un-training of erroneous beliefs and actions which interfere with spontaneous childbirth. I see this un-training process akin to removing the mind swaddling of the prevailing technocratic culture.

As a spiritual midwife, my primary responsibility is to empower the mother to give birth spontaneously. The tendency is to enroll in the cult of experts who say, "I know more about your body than you do." My responsibility as a healer is to return any projections of power upon me to the family I am serving. The truth is that I am not medically nor surgically skilled -- I cannot deliver a mother's baby for her. Rather, I remind the mother that she is the only one able to give birth (her other option is to be delivered) -- and I support her every way I can. In this way I am able to respond to my original calling -- to be the guardian at the gate.

To aspiring healers who are called to attend childbirth, I advise the following; first, midwife, heal thyself, Next, do no harm. Remember your own birth and forgive any trespasses upon your soul. And always, listen to the still, small voice within -- and the voices of countless mothers before who gave birth with dignity and as a natural expression of sexuality. Last, realize that mothers who give free birth can connect with the Source of all creation and be the God-Us in action.

How can my personal experiences in birth serve the world now? One idea of how evolution works, is the morphogenetic field theory of Rupert Sheldrake. It has been popularized by Ken Keyes in his book, THE HUNDREDTH MONKEY. What this idea states is that there are leaps of evolution for an entire species which occur simultaneously amongst all members regardless of geographic location. In regards to childbirth, I observe the phenomenon of morphic resonance in this way -- more and more families are choosing to freebirth, all over the world. When a critical mass is reached of ecstatic rather than suffering birth, there just may be a leap of faith. All mothers may remember that we are co- creators of life and have totally within each of us the capacity to show the world what our love looks like in the form of a baby. Whenever I give a talk or workshop, I imagine that the one mother who is the "critical mass" for free birth may be attending and inspired by my word medicine to reclaim birth. Indeed, each mother I speak with, in my mind, is the hundredth monkey, a change agent for evolution, as well as the God-Us incarnate. For as the canon of Hygieia College states, Healing One Mother is Healing the Earth.Blessed Be the Babies!!I meet JPB in 1973, I was the first graduate of Hygieia College in 1982. My midwifery work is deeply informed by Jeannine's fine mind. I carry on the essence of her work.

Jeannine's three books:

PRENATAL YOGA

HYGIEIA

CONSCIOUS CONCEPTION

I meet Stan Grof in 1973-74 in the tubs at Esalen Institute, in Big Sur, ...he saved my life.

Stanislav Grof, M.D., is a psychiatrist with over fifty years experience researching non-ordinary states of consciousness. He was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he also received his scientific training - an M.D. degree from the Charles University School of Medicine and a Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine) from the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences. His early research was in the clinical uses of psychoactive drugs, conducted at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, There he was Principal Investigator of a program systematically exploring the heuristic and therapeutic potential of LSD and other psychedelic substances.

In 1967, he was invited to be Clinical and Research Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. After completion of this two-year fellowship, he remained in the US and continued his research as Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Henry Phipps Clinic of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. In 1973, Dr. Grof became Scholar-in-Residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he lived until 1987. He spent this time writing books and articles, giving seminars and lectures worldwide, and developing Holotropic Breathwork with his wife Christina Grof.

Stanislav Grof is one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology and founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA). In this role, he organized, jointly with Christina, large international conferences in the United States, India, Australia, Czechoslovakia, and Brazil. At present, he Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), teaching in the department of Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness. He lives in Mill Valley, CA, writes books, conducts training seminars for professionals in Holotropic Breathwork and transpersonal psychology (for Grof Transpersonal Training) and gives lectures and seminars all over the world.

The achievements of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi are profound in thefield of knowledge and immense in the field of action. During the past 50 years, more than five million people have learned the

Transcendental Meditation techntrainedover 40,000 teachers,opened thousands of teaching centers, and founded hundreds of schools, colleges and universities.Maharishi Vedic Science programsare being applied in private businesses, public institutions and homes in every countryique and are rising to enlightenment through their twice-daily practice.